An unofficial news blog for Neil Young fans from Thrasher's Wheat with concert and album updates, reviews, analysis, and other Rock & Roll ramblings. Separating the wheat from the chaff since 1996.

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Alchemy doesn’t begin to describe the ferocious, blood-on-the-floor, all-in delivery of turning guitar metal into gold at last night’s concert in Philly.

30% mad scientist, 100% brilliant, Neil milked every note, every chord, and every other conceivable sound out of Old Black - along with steady backup from Crazy Horse - attacking every song with a passion and intensity few at any age can deliver. Some songs were pure joy (Ramada Inn, Hey Hey My My, Like A Hurricane, and Mr. Soul) some were over the top (Walk Like a Giant and F##kin’ Up), yet all were mesmerizing for all of us who love pure, driving, straight-to-the-heart rock and roll.

Would have liked to see a longer acoustic segment – Needle and the Damage Done was delivered with gut wrenching perfection, while Singer without a Song was the weak link of the show (nice piano but tedious lyrics, accompanied by a woman with a guitar case strolling awkwardly around the stage looking lost and confused). Neil’s’ new found sobriety serves him well - he thanked the crowd, acknowledged Philly, smiled a lot by his standards, and had the energy of a man in his 20’s.

The boomer generation may have fallen short of creating the loving and peaceful world that the young Neil Young envisioned (and wistfully alludes to in Walk Like a Giant), but no one, not even Dylan or Springsteen, has channeled our generation’s thoughts, feelings and life experiences with more emotional impact than Neil.

9 Comments:

The song is Like a Hurricane, you see ... you know it's coming. The storm surge hits at about 9:30 and the tune is torn apart. Neil and company have to gather the bits and pieces, find some duct tape and put it back together. The eye passes close enough to get through the verses again, then the wind and the rain and the wind.

As to Billy's technique, he has simply found the sweet feedback spot on the floor (their amps really are behind the "big" ones) and is just modulating the noise (howling wind and flood waters) with his feet.

Billy Talbot is channeling the spirits of Jaco Pastorius, Kurt Cobain and John Cage while the band is playing Theta Mind Music for the 21st Century. The dream has become reality. Lose yourself to find yourself. I've heard many live versions of Hurricane with Neil and the Horse, Neil without the Horse, and just Neil. This might be the best one yet, at least until a better one comes along.

"Happiness is one thing to one person and another thing to another person."--Charles M. Schulz

NY: Elevation. You can feel it. That's all I'm looking for. You can tell I don't care about bad notes. I listen for the whole band on my solos. You can call it a solo because that's a good way to describe it, but really it's an instrumental. It's the whole band that's playing. Billy Talbot is a massive bass player who only plays two or three notes. People are still trying to figure out whether it's because he only knows two or three notes or whether those are the only notes he wants to play.[Laughs.] But when he hits a note, that note speaks for itself. It's a big motherfuckin' note. Even the soft one is big.

JO: What's the appeal of working with Frank Sampedro?

NY: Frank uses the biggest strings of any guitar player I've ever seen. Frank is probably even more of a crude player than I am, because his lead isn't as developed as mine. But his strings are so big! .055 on the bottom, big wound third, .012 on the E string. He hits a note, and it's a big note. I hit a note, it's like here today, where's it going, what's happening? Without Crazy Horse playing so big, I sound just normal. But they supply the big so I can float around and sound huge.

The big is them.

JO: Is jamming a lost art?

NY: I don't know, I haven't seen any jams lately.[Laughs.} You see all these concerts---what's happening?